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Money versus momentum in the fight for House control

1. The fundraising figures released by the two parties' House campaign committees on Tuesday -- the National Republican Congressional Committee and Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee each collected about $9 million in June -- offer up two competing narratives as we turn our attention toward the fight for control this fall.

On the one hand, the NRCC outraised the DCCC over the past three months ($21.7 million to $19.3 million) and has outraised them for all of 2010 ($39 million to $38 million).

Money does tend to follow momentum in politics and, Republican strategists argue, donors now clearly believe that the House majority is up for grabs and want to be on the side playing offense.

On the other hand, House Democrats ended June with $34 million in the bank, a total nearly double the $17 million that the NRCC showed on hand.

With television buys beginning in earnest over the next month or so, July and August notoriously slow fundraising months and the election just over 100 days away, it seems clear that the DCCC will still spend more money on races this fall than the NRCC.

(A Democratic source notes that in the last midterm election of 2006, the DCCC, which was then fighting to take back the majority, had a $5 million cash on hand edge over their Republican counterparts after the second quarter of fundraising.)

Which storyline is right? Both -- in their way.

Republicans have to feel good about the direction that their fundraising is headed. While they would always like to have more money to spend on an ever-broadening playing field, the recent strength of their cash collection operation suggests that they will have enough money to take considerable -- if not full -- advantage of the national winds blowing in their direction.

(Remember that in a year where the playing field is tilted in one party's favor, money matters but not nearly as much as when the playing field is relatively neutral.)

Democrats, too, should feel as though they are as ready as they will ever be for what almost certainly will be an election in which they sustain significant losses. The $34 million sitting in the DCCC bank account will pay for lots (and lots) of ads attacking Republicans running for Congress across the country and, given the NRCC's current cash position, voters will be hearing more of the Democratic message than the Republican one over their airwaves in the final months of many of these competitive races.

2. The runoff for the Republican nomination for governor in Georgia presents some very familiar dynamics: a female candidate backed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin versus a conservative male congressman.

In Georgia last night, former Georgia Secretary of StateKaren Handel finished first in the primary Tuesday night but took well below 50 percent of the vote -- forcing her into an Aug. 10 runoff against former Rep. Nathan Deal (R-Ga.).

That result bears a striking resemblance to the South Carolina governor's race last month where state Sen. Nikki Haley (R) surged -- thanks in part to the Palin endorsement -- during the final weeks of the primary but had to fight it out with Rep. Gresham Barrett (R) in a runoff to claim the nomination.

While Palin supported Handel and Haley, Deal and Barrett have been backed by more mainstream GOP figures. Barrett had the backing of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and other establishment South Carolina Republicans in his loss to Haley; Deal has the support of former Georgia congressman and House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R).

One big difference between the two states: Handel didn't walk away from Tuesday with anywhere near the margin that Haley got in her primary. Haley beat Barrett 49 percent to 22 percent on primary night, while Handel's margin was less than 10 for much of Tuesday. Handel, who took around one-third of the vote, has a lot longer path to the majority she will need in three weeks.

The winner faces former Gov. Roy Barnes (D), a strong fundraiser who will now get a head start on his GOP opponent after winning his primary outright Tuesday.

In other downballot races in the Peach state, there were no big surprises. State Labor Commissioner Mike Thurmond (D) will face Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), and special election-winning Rep. Tom Graves (R-Ga.) faces another runoff with former state Sen. Lee Hawkins (R), whom he beat last month in a special election.

3. Republicans appear to have suffered a recruiting setback in the West Virginia special election as Rep. Shelley Moore Capito is expected to take herself out of contention for the seat of the late Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.).

Threes sources familiar with Capito's decision said she will not run despite the fact that state legislators gained a concession in a special-election bill passed Monday that would have allowed her to run for both re-election and in the Senate race at the same time.

Yesterday National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman John Cornyn (Texas) said that he had spoken with Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) about a potential bid -- although he sounded less than optimistic she would make the race.

Cornyn said that there was "more than one candidate who I think could be competitive" and acknowledged that "staff level" conversations have gone on with wealthy businessman John Raese, who lost to Byrd in 2006 and Sen. Jay Rockefeller in 1984, and is said to be eyeing a bid.

In handicapping the race, Cornyn acknowledged Manchin's popularity but noted that the governor supported the Obama administration on some unpopular agenda items in West Virginia including the economic stimulus package and the national health care overhaul. Ultimately, Cornyn said, there's a "big difference" between running for governor and running to become "part of the president's team" in Washington.

Still, without Capito in the field, this race becomes a decided longshot for Republicans this fall.

4. Former Colorado state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff raised $620,000 for his primary challenge to appointed Sen. Michael Bennet over the past three months, with much of it coming after former President Bill Clinton endorsed his bid.

Romanoff upped his fundraising significantly over past quarters but still raised only about half of what Bennet did. Bennet had a $2.6 million to $464,000 edge in cash on hand as of July 1. The primary is Aug. 24.

Romanoff has spent nearly all of his cash on ads running that will run statewide through July 27. In his latest commercial, he attacks Bennet for taking campaign cash from banks and oil companies; "I don't take money from special interests because they have enough politicians on their payroll," says Romanoff.

Campaign spokesman Roy Teicher assured that the Clinton bump will keep the campaign in the game through primary day. "That surge continued past the filing deadline," Teicher said. "So we're going to have the ability to have a continuous presence on TV."

Republicans have a primary of their own between Weld County prosecutor Ken Buck and former Lt. Gov. Jane Norton.

5. Former Nevada state Assemblywoman Sharron Angle is up with her first positive television ad of her race against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D), a 30-second spot that features her addressing a group of supporters at a town hall meeting.

"We have a fearful society right now," Angle says in the ad. "What they're afraid of is that what we're going to be passing down to our children is not liberty and freedom but debt and deficit."

Angle adds: "Government is not the solution to the problem. Government is the problem. We, the people, are the solution."

This is Angle's second ad of the general election. Her first commercial blamed Reid for the state's unemployment rate -- the highest in the country. The conservative outside organization American Crossroads also went up with an ad late last week hitting Reid for supporting "bailouts, deficits and Obamacare."

Angle's positive turn comes days after a new independent poll that showed her trailing Reid by seven points amid plummeting favorable numbers -- an erosion almost certainly due to the battering she has taken on television from the Democrat since the June 8 primary.

Privately, Republicans believe that the next month will be critical to Angle's chances. Can she turn the race back around to Reid or will it continue to focus on a variety of impolitic comments she has made over the years?

"BB, KY elected Bunning. Also, the #1 cash crop in KY is hemp. Think of Paul as Bunning who favors decriminalization of hemp. If there are are potential KY posters lurking, please chime in and tell me I am wrong. Please. Posted by: mark_in_austin"

The number 1 POTENTIAL cash crop ik KY is Hemp. The number 1 reportable cash crop is still tobacco, but Rs and Ds both admit that5 legal pot and the taxes on it would be a wonderful blessing for Kentucky. The Dems won't oppose legalization, and enough republicans would support it to0 pass legalization just as soon as the Feds get out of the way.

In fact, needing a way to pay for all those wars and benefits and tax breaks, maybe we should be taking the final approach to the 18th Amendment, a noble experiment that we just can't afford.

Just suppose by some long shot Rand Paul managed to stay muzzled and Conway did an inept job of doing what Harry Reid's campaign is doing successfully with Sharron Angle. Paul squeaks by and goes to the Senate. What happens then?

Who's going to want him on their committees?

He wouldn't do any good, his whole approach is retrograde, most of his unhinged policy notions are flat non-starters. He'd waste a lot of time introducing bills that would be dead on arrival and spend his whole six years looking for fights. Kentucky would get no good out of his representation at all and he would do everything he could to hold up the nation's business.

I nurture hope that Conway has a clear strategy laid out, a time to roll out the Amero conspiracy, a time to revisit segregated lunch counters, etc. Fish in a barrel, really.

Plathman, not to mention that McConnell had a close election in 2008. Yeah, it was kind of a wave year for Dems while 2010 won't be, but I think the Kentucky seat is a longshot, but winnable. Rasmussen has Paul at about an eight point lead (49-41) which probably translates to the two being about even. If the tea party continues to fall in approval rating along with the Republican party in general, this could be very competitive.

How sad. It's all about how much money DCCC or RNCC can waste on political advertising. While there are those out there who truly deserve some help.
No! Not the career unemployment receivers!! Or the self made welfare queens and their consorts!
But real American people who want the freedom to pursue the American dream that they are entitled to.
Meanwhile, these cash flush politicians in Washington throwing it around and living large. They make me sick.

"He opined that Palin's endorsement by robocall helped Ms. Handel but pointed out that Ms. Handel had no money and could not put the endorsement on radio, TV, or in newspapers. He credited the robocalls and the internet for the effect."

She doesn't have to pay to put it in the newspapers, Mark -- they do it for free. Anytime palin endorses someone, they get free ad space on the Fix, on TV, on radio, everywhere.

The media has poisoned its own well. Its survivors are increasingly political bloggers who satisfy the left’s taste for blood, e.g. Andrew Sullivan, Joe Klein, Glenn Greenwald, Ezra Klein, who survive by pushing radical messages in the most abrasive way possible. But all this really does is turn Time Magazine and the Washington Post into Firedoglake, the Huffington Post and DailyKos. And radicalizing media outlets also marginalizes them. The media has successfully alienated conservatives and independents. Now it is alienating even mainstream Democrats who are sick of childish rantings and conspiracy theories taking the place of serious journalism.

The blogsphere has not only defeated the media, it has remade it in its own image. Conventional reporting is vanishing, and what remains of the media exists only to push talking points, repackage memes, launch attacks at the opposition, and furiously cover the asses of their own pet politicians. Unlike printing presses, radio and television stations; websites are relatively cheap. And that put the media into the uncomfortable position of trying to compete with free blogs. Paywalls have not worked, and so newspapers are folding and media outlets are trimming their staffs to try and stay competitive. And as the Time Magazine website shows us, the end result leaves you with something that has the Time brand on it, but reads like the Huffington Post.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
cilizza, hurry up and get that filter that eliminates all reasonable and conservative thought off your blog. you are falling behind.

I heard Jim Galloway of the Atlanta Journal on POTUS this morning. He opined that Palin's endorsement by robocall helped Ms. Handel but pointed out that Ms. Handel had no money and could not put the endorsement on radio, TV, or in newspapers. He credited the robocalls and the internet for the effect.

He then said that Barnes had a real shot. Barnes won 2/3 of the vote against 6 opponents, three of whom were serious. Margaret, the guy with the funny name was a statewide official and the highest ranking black state wide official. Barnes won every county save two. And he pointed to Barnes' money, to. He thought Barnes had an uphill fight, but could win. He said Barnes lost the 2002 race when he struck the stars-and-bars from the GA flag. He also alienated the teachers union back then. He has spent six months semi-apologizing to the teachers, but not to the self-styled confederate crowd about the flag issue.

Thanks for the details on KY. My thinking is that it's a state where someone along the lines of DeMint, Sessions, Vitter would win easily. PPP has the KY race as a tie, Rasmussen has Paul up by 7 (what a shock). This one is a potential Dem pick-up. If Crist holds on in Florida and Paul blows it, it's going to be very difficult for the Republicans to get more than modest gains.

"Two white farmers who were supposedly discriminated against by former USDA official Shirley Sherrod spoke out on her behalf yesterday, saying “no way in the world” is she racist.

But last night, the right-wing blogger who instigated this faux controversy questioned the white farmers’ honesty and repeated his false racist charges. In interviews with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and CNN, the Iron City, GA couple Roger and Eloise Spooner described Sherrod as a “friend for life” and a “good person” who helped save their farm. Speaking with CNN’s John King, right-wing provocateur Andrew Breitbart challenged Eloise Spooner’s “purported” story, accusing King of trusting Sherrod “that the ‘farmer’s wife’ is the farmer’s wife”:

This is how insane this country has become. These people are who they are, they can prove it, and the rightwing MSM gives equal weight to this racist monster and utter phony Brietbart. Reality in this country doesn't even stand a chance against propaganda.

mark_in_austin, i don't want to say you're wrong, but remember that bunning (an incumbent republican) nearly lost to daniel mongiardo (then, an almost unknown democrat, though he's lt. governor now) in 2004 when GWB was trouncing john kerry and amassing his "political capital." bunning wouldn't have won this year (he has some ethics scandals that would have come up with his autograph baseball business/charity).

but, where people saw bunning as a straight-talking no BS type of guy, some of them were unnerved by things that paul has said.

his comments about race, even when they fairly portrayed, did not play well with a lot of reliable republican voters. though most people get that paul himself is against racism and discrimination, many just don't agree with him that restaurants or businesses should be allowed to discriminate on race, sexual orientation or anything else. my parents, for example, are conservative democrats who almost always vote republican because they're pro-life. they've voted for reagan, GHWB, dole, GWB; mcconnell, bunning, anne northup. they never miss a primary or general election. but, this year, they're considering leaving the senate race blank or writing someone in because they think paul is too radical. it's anecdotal, so there's no real force behind it, but it was shocking to me to hear them say this because they're one issue voters.

he's also getting pounded on agricultural subsidies. paul thinks we should get rid of them, and that's disturbing to a lot of people in central and western ky. so, even if he's pro-hemp or ending the drug war or whatever, a lot of farmers rely on those subsidies and aren't persuaded by his arguments.

paul's begun to moderate his view points, and there's a ton of time between now and the election for him to change people's minds. but, conway is a strong candidate, and he's got his name in the paper nearly everyday as AG, issuing some consumer protection investigation or going after criminals.

we'll see what happens, but like cillizza says, KY is a possible pick up for the dems which could replace the (likely?) loss in IN.

health care is an emergency, no time to read the bill, no time for compromise, no time to get a single Repub. the effects don't kick in for years though. the porkulus must be passed today, it is an emergency. Next up, cap and tax emergency. FInReg emergency produced over 2000 pages of unread and lurking legislation.

those clowns didn't even bother to prepare a federal budget for this year?

what exactly is their job, other than trying to get reelected?

word of the day for out of work liberals working on their writing: deadbeat

Margaret: point taken, though my assessment of Angle's commericial is more along the lines that it's the correct message for her campaign.

Yes, it is highly hypocritical of Republican candidates to complain about debt and deficit when they are highly complicit in the growth of both. But the Tea Party movement, which Angle is benefitting from, is both an opposition to Democratic policies and an insurgency within the Republican party. So Angle can, with a straight face, attack both establishment Republicans (which is how she won the primary) and now Democrats on the debt and deficit issue.

I would be both very suprised and absolutely appalled, however, if she won in November. (Nevada isn't Utah, after all.)

He noted, “The RNC normally uses its own inside counsel to deal with the FEC, but if I had a really serious problem with the FEC, Michael Toner is one of the first guys I would turn to help me out.” It also looks like another serious problem for Steele, who just got done weathering numerous calls for his resignation after suggesting that the U.S. should not be involved in Afghanistan."

Bennett has been at worst low key and unremarkable and at best low key and competent. He hasn't done anything particularly controversial or inspiring, so his negatives are low other than with people who just don't like Democrats as a rule.

I think Buck will beat Norton becuase he inspires his base, but outside of that fan club his aggressiveness will turn off a lot of people.

So you have Bennet behaving like an adult, albeit a boring one, and Buck trying not look like he'll want to gnaw through whatever restraints the RSCC tries to place on him to make him look un-scary to the electorate as a whole. Bennet's handlers will have a much easier job in selling their candidate.

"It was "unemployment benefits that were not paid for" that was the objection.

You may remember Pay-go."

Wasn't pay-go supposed to apply to the budget, but not necessarily to emergency spending? The UE benefits extension falls into the latter category - it is a short-term, temporary extension. Keeping the irresponsible Bush tax cuts would fall into the former category. Funny how the GOP forgets all about pay-go or unsustainable deficits when the spending is their pet project.

"The Republican National Committee failed to report more than $7 million in debt to the Federal Election Commission in recent months - a move that made its bottom line appear healthier than it is heading into the midterm elections and that also raises the prospect of a hefty fine.

In a memo to RNC budget committee members, RNC Treasurer Randy Pullen on Tuesday accused Chairman Michael S. Steele and his chief of staff, Michael Leavitt, of trying to conceal the information from him by ordering staff not to communicate with the treasurer - a charge RNC officials deny.

Mr. Pullen told the members that he had discovered $3.3 million in debt from April and $3.8 million from May, which he said had led him to file erroneous reports with the FEC. He amended the FEC filings Tuesday."

"A group funded by Minnesota corporations has begun running a TV ad praising Republican gubernatorial hopeful Tom Emmer. The ad is the latest effort by an independent group that hopes to influence elections. ...

Minnesota Forward is an umbrella organization that's funded by Minnesota businesses including Target, Polaris, Hubbard Broadcasting and Davisco Foods. Because of a U.S Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, those businesses and other companies are now allowed to spend corporate money to influence elections."

Mark,
Kentucky's population is centered in the urban centers of Lousville, Lexington, and Covington (suburb of Cincy). I think the Libertarian views of Rand Paul sell well in the Appalachian region in the East (over represented in the GOP primary), but it will not sell well along the Ohio River where Unions still have a pretty strong influence. If Conway can run up big games in the three major population centers then I think he will smoke Paul, although I agree with him on decriminilization.

This is what I love about this country. The anti-Capitalists Democrats will give more money to the Capitalist radio, television, and print media (enriching the Capitalist owners of these media) - and the pro-Capitalist Republicans, spending less money, will still win in November because the American people believe in Capitalism. THROW YOUR MONEY AT US, DEMOCRATS! WE'LL TAKE IT ALL. WE KNOW YOU'RE GOING TO LOSE - AND LOSE BIG - IN NOVEMBER, BUT WE'LL GIVE YOU THE GREATEST SPOTS YOUR MONEY CAN BUY - AND (AND THIS IS IMPORTANT) WHEN GO TO THE POLLS IN NOVEMBER WE WILL VOTE AGAINST YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE AGAINST US AND OUR WANTING TO MAKE AS MUCH MONEY AS WE CAN!!!!

In case you thought there was any meaningful distinction between the "mainstream" media and radical left outfits like the Nation:

Chris Hayes of the Nation posted on April 29, 2008, urging his colleagues to ignore Wright. Hayes directed his message to "particularly those in the ostensible mainstream media" who were members of the list. …
Hayes urged his colleagues — especially the straight news reporters who were charged with covering the campaign in a neutral way — to bury the Wright scandal. "I'm not saying we should all rush en masse to defend Wright. If you don't think he's worthy of defense, don't defend him! What I'm saying is that there is no earthly reason to use our various platforms to discuss what about Wright we find objectionable," Hayes said.
In other words, lie by silence. This tactic defines media coverage — or more accurately, the lack of it — in the age of Obama.

When the smoke clears and we're shifting through the rubble of our country for clues as to how Barack Hussein Obama could conceivably have been elected president when his ultra-radical background was public knowledge in advance, future historians can start with the cancer we know as the liberal media.

In 2004 Bunning said his opponent Sen. Daniel Mongiardo, an Italian-American -- looked ...like a terrorist.

Ky apparently will tolerate any outrageous
comments by a conservative, even someone
like Bunning who acted and appeared senile.
Rand Paul is safe mark imho.
It is also a poor state which makes it even more bizarre that they would oppose extension of unemployment benefits which Bunning has consistantly done.

I can remember a long time ago, in the days when Rubio was raising oh! so much money and was on the watch list for a winning 2012 Presidential bid, since he had already beaten Crist (who Meek?)in a landslide of Republican momentum.

CBS News alumnus Bernie Goldberg will tell you that there is no left-wing conspiracy among the mainstream media — it just happens to be made up almost entirely of moonbats who report "the news" as it appears to them while wearing their liberal blinders. I wonder what Goldberg makes of new revelations that the establishment media deliberately suppressed information about Obama's long and close relationship with Jeremiah Wright, who for 20 years spewed his hebephrenic hatred of Caucasians and America into B. Hussein's receptive ears:

According to records obtained by The Daily Caller, at several points during the 2008 presidential campaign a group of liberal journalists took radical steps to protect their favored candidate. Employees of news organizations including Time, Politico, the Huffington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Guardian, Salon and the New Republic participated in outpourings of anger over how Obama had been treated in the media, and in some cases plotted to fix the damage.
According to these lib journalists, their colleagues were oppressing poor Barry even as they slobbered on his shoes.

In one instance, Spencer Ackerman of the Washington Independent urged his colleagues to deflect attention from Obama's relationship with Wright by changing the subject. Pick one of Obama's conservative critics, Ackerman wrote, "Fred Barnes, Karl Rove, who cares — and call them racists."
Michael Tomasky, a writer for the Guardian, also tried to rally his fellow members of Journolist: "Listen folks — in my opinion, we all have to do what we can to kill ABC [which enraged other liberal outlets by reporting on Wright] and this idiocy in whatever venues we have. This isn't about defending Obama. This is about how the [mainstream media] kills any chance of discourse that actually serves the people."

FairlingtonBlade writes
"Given that money also tends to flow to incumbents, it's good news for the Republicans that they've held even. It would be interesting to see DNC and RNC numbers in there. Has money that would normally flow to the RNC instead gone to the other committees? If so, then it suggests that the balloon has merely been squeezed."

The rules are different this year. Here in MN, Tom Emmer isn't blowing the doors off with fundraising, but an affiliated group has put some ads up that are funded by local corporate giants like Target. If corporate america starts spending big on elections, the 'money race' between the DNC & RNC - and other party groups - will be irrelevant.

re: KY cash crops; back in the 80s a friend's dad was helping the Nat'l Guard kill the harvest in illegal gardens in the Daniel Boone nat'l forest. They burned thousands of pounds of plants. I don't know that they ever caught the gardeners.

1. Given that money also tends to flow to incumbents, it's good news for the Republicans that they've held even. It would be interesting to see DNC and RNC numbers in there. Has money that would normally flow to the RNC instead gone to the other committees? If so, then it suggests that the balloon has merely been squeezed.

3. Senator Manchin. Count on it.

5. Was it a weak field or a TP wave that allowed Angle through? Whatever the case, the Republicans blew Nevada. Rush, Sean, and Glenn need only attract the bedrock base. Winning candidates need more. Kentucky and Florida are two seats that should have been easy holds and now will be tough sledding.

CC amended the "change" post last night to announce a delay. In any case, this seems to have been a polite morning.

Gallenod, are you in CO? Has Bennett been a good senator for a first termer? Why did Romanoff choose to run?

I have been asking where Barnes got his funding, which seemed very healthy for a GA D. Again, was it from a great many in state contributors? Fat cats? Out-of-staters? We could know something useful if we knew where the mony came from.

"...haven't seen much visible difference in the comments section yet..." I see all the people I've missed, hi everybody I've missed.
I have been trying to follow along, I really do have a lot of respect for your thoughts, but unless his hit count drops, CC won't change a thing.

One other comment on #4: Even if he knows he won't win, Romanoff may keep running just to get his name in the public consciousnous and lay down a marker for a future race. I'd look for him to run either for a US House seat or some other statewide race in the next few years.

Also: haven't seen much visible difference in the comments section yet, but it's still early.

1. Money talks, or at least allows candidates to talk on TV and radio. However, given the discontent in the electorate excessive messaging, particularly the negative kind, might actually backfire this time around. Candidates should tread carefully.

2. I think Handel will win the R nomination, but I also think Barnes will eventually win in Georgia. Also, I wonder if Thurmond (or someone associated) will bring up to Georgia voters that the provision in the health reform bill that became the basis for the "death panels" meme was originally proposed by Isakson (who later backed away from trying to defend it when R's were flogging it).

3. Manchin should start measuring drapes for his new Senate office.

4. I'm thinking Bennett vs. Buck in Colorado, with Bennett winning simply because he looks more rational and less likely to chew holes in the Senate furniture when frustrated.

5. The positive commercial is a good one, but barring some massive gaffe by Reid, Angle is liekly too damaged at this point to recover.

Anyone want to take a bet that Carte Goodwin runs for governor of WV when they hold that special election there this winter? One day into his term and he's already figuring in votes that are important for WV.

#1-The only stat that is worth noting is that Chris Van Hollen and the DCCC has TWICE as much money then the NRCC. The rest is all just fluff. Also what happens if the GOP doesn't take back the house? Their funding will implode, so I would expect the NRCC to loan at least 5-10 million to try and keep pace with the Democrats.

#3-Welcome to Washington Senator Manchin.

#4-Romanoff just can't seem to get off the ground, and I don't see attacking Bennett as a solid strategy. His commercials should all have Bill Clinton in them saying nice things about Romanoff. Also Both Romanoff and Bennett are praying that the Colorado GOP pulls a ShAngle (trademark pending:) and nominates Buck.

* Thousands of Americans slandered as "dissidents" or undesirables, targeted by Bush legacy program for debilitating, cell tower- based microwave/radio frequency assault, held hostage in their own homes to fed-supported vigilante "community policing" stalking units equipped with warrantless GPS devices, who vandalize and terrorize as local police look the other way.

* Electromagnetic microwave laser radio frequency weapon system -- a nationwide installation employing cell towers and satellites -- silently, invisibly induces weakness, exhaustion, mood changes, pain, head and body aches, physical and neurological impairment, strokes, aneurysms, cancer -- and many victims do not realize what is making them sick.

EXHIBIT A: U.S. Patent No. 7629918, held by Raytheon Corp., for the "Multi-functional Microwave Laser Radio Frequency Directed Energy Weapon System" -- deployed and operational in EVERY neighborhood in America.

* Use of microwave weaponry to torture and impair political opponents recently confirmed by deposed Honduras President Manuel Zelaya.

* Pleas for justice, to local police and FBI, go unanswered -- as do demands for a Department of Justice Civil Rights Division investigation and congressional hearings.

"These are crimes against humanity and the Constitution, being perpetrated under the cover of national security and 'safe streets' by multiple federal and local agencies and commands -- an American genocide hiding in plain sight, enabled by the naivete of those who think 'it can't happen here.'" -- Victor Livingston, former reporter for WTXF-TV Philadelphia, Phila. Bulletin, N.Y. Daily News, St. Petersburg Times; producer/host, MSG Network Sports Business Report; columnist, NowPublic.com/scrivener.